Bears Drop First Preseason Game To Bills 27-20

I have a feeling I’d be really pissed right now had I watched that game.

The early AP rundown of the game is already painting Cutler as a bust, and I’m sure BLou and others will be on here saying the same crap, so I figured I’d try and beat them to it.

First preseason game never really shows much that much. My only prayer is someone magically steps up in that recieving corps, and Cutler has the guts to go to them. Little too much looking at Hester…

locked in on almost every pass. He didn’t look off anyone. He went to Hester way too much and seemed easy to read. This says two things. First, he would appear to have little confidence in his receivers (other than Devin). Second, if he continues to be predictable, regardless of whether other receivers develop, he’ll be throwing picks all year long. The other thing that made me very nervous; our secondary looked horrible. I think that’s an understatement, but I can’t find an adjective that describes it better. We couldn’t cover. Anyone. Period. The Bills QB’s and receivers looked incredible. If they win the Superbowl and have multiple probowlers, than I have made a bad assessment of our defense, but this team looked too good for words against our defense. I know its preseason, but the concerns of last year still look very much alive this year. I walked away with far too many questions and very few answers. Hopefully we’re shaking off the rust and revealing little to our opponents, cause if this is what we’ll bring to the regular season, its gonna be a long one.

that for several years, it looks like pure luck when we do complete a pass, I don’t care who the QB is. Also, why is it that everytime it’s 3rd and whatever, our corners drop back 5 yards beyond whatever that number is, about 2 counts before the snap? I’m going to write this off as a pre-season game, and the first one at that, but there were a lot of “too familiar” bad things happening. Let’s see what happens against the Giants.

Also, did anyone see the Cutler press conference game after the game? When asked what happened on the interception and he was even given the option that he threw off his back foot or just tried to rush things, his comment was “well Devin isn’t much of a back shoulder, come back and go up for it guy so I’ll just have to learn from that”. Let’s hope he chooses his comments more carefully as the season progresses. I’m not saying he did throw Hester under the bus, but I could see where people might take it that way.

the 85 Bears went 1-3 in preseason….the 05 Bears went 1-3….the Lions and I believe raiders went 4-0 last preseason…so…

the D line showed flashes I thought…the secondary stunk (and were sorely missing Tillman and Bowman)…Cutler was blah missing Olsen and Forte…all the talk of Rideau and DA was just that talk so far…..My heroes Knox and Iglesias were mixed (Knox should of caught that pass and Iglesias was invisible until the TD and KO return….

Only ones that showed up were Alex Brown, Urlacher, Briggs, Hanie and Rashid Davis (sigh)…..IMO…Hope they do more in the second game….or the Boo birds might get brutal….

If we didn’t put in Bananez the picks probably wouldn’t have happened and it would be tied or better since the picks also caused a loss of possession

Mayber it was better losing this game so we are garanteed not to go 4-0 in preseason like the Lions did and you know how that ended up

I’d like to blame his performance on his lack of familiarity with the rest of this offense, but really, what does not knowing a player’s name have to do with him missing a wide open man and instead forcing it to Hester for the interception?

For someone traded for as a first rate QB, he didn’t perform like one. Struck me as someone with the same rationale as Rex under pressure.

seriously..all this negativity already..it was a preseason game..everybody is still knocking the rust off and he is still getting used to our playbook/wideouts. seriously take a freaking chill pill. so he threw an INT big deal.. what matters is the season and he only threw 10 passes..c’mon now. dont make me paste a fail pic for your comments.. lets not be fair weather fans ok. look for the good. focus on the good fix the bad.

It doesn’t matter if anyone does outstanding or anyone does mad. For the most part, it means nothing.

not too many people stood out. Hanie looks like he has all the potential in the world and looks far and away better than Bassenez…. so no backup QB controversy.

First string O-line looked better than last years. It looks like they’re trying to get G. Wolfe in the mix more which I think will pay dividends. And, despite the terrible drop that lead to an interception, Knox showed flashes of potential.

The D-Line wasn’t dominant, but it looked markedly improved over last years group.

Cutler obviously didn’t look sharp, but let’s drop the Grossman references… even after the bad plays, he continued to play confidently… something Rex would never do after throwing an interception.

Finally, the secondary did not look good at all…. But considering the inexperience there, they could have looked a lot worse.

which makes me continue to question our schemes on both sides of the ball. Our blitzes get picked up, we play too far off the receivers, our receivers either don’t get open or our QB can’t find them (since we’ve gone through Grossman, Hutchison, Orton, and now Cutler, I’m guessing it’s more of a problem with the receivers or the way the routes are designed), and we can’t sustain drives.

Like I said earlier, it’s only the first preseason game so I’m not overly concerned about an interception or a dropped pass at this point. The ‘85 Bears didn’t win until the 4th game in the Super Bowl year, so I don’t care that we didn’t win the game, but I’m disappointed that we didn’t see any improvement in the areas they concentrated on during the off-season.

…the Bills also had a game played before the first snap…that extra time in pads, in a “real game” situation was probably an advantage…

And, I wonder if Cutler was forcing the ball to Hester on purpose…to get in extra work, or see what Devon could do against a defense that was really going for it, as opposed to practice

like the corners plying to far off, just tell them to play closer and keeping on that subject tillman, bowman and manning were all out
Cutler didn’t have Olsen and Forte
But it relieving to see Hanies play

It’s quite obvious that the bills wanted this game a lot more than the bears as the seemed to be using their complete playbook and the bears went very vanilla on both sides of the ball but..the things that were hurting us last year do not look resolved. Our pass rush did not look that much better ( where is the Marinelli affect?). Secondary no improvement, still can’t stop third down or the slant route. This is a major worry. Still poor run blocking and could not get a consistent push against the powerhouse buffalo bills. I do however think our pass blocking was excellent and Cutler had plenty of time. First game, lets step back from the ledge, but I would have like to see more improvement over our weak spots.

Have you seen Cutler throw? It looked to me like tonight he was asked to find Hester as many times as possible. This is not the season, it is the preseason. The only thing you are looking for is the last end of the roster. You want to shake the rust off and find out what your roster will be. You don’t show any of your real offense or defense because you don’t want anyone to be able to game plan against what you have in store for the season. Look at last year, we went 1-3, then came out and killed the Colts! If you look at last year, we needed to win one more game to make the playoffs. Or better yet a fourth quarter against the Panthers, and Bucs, a last eleven seconds against the Falcons, a catch from Rashied Davis against the Titans to send it into at least overtime. If I was Lovie or JA, I would have spent the entire offseason learning how to finish games. Calm down and realize that this team under Lovie Smith is made to play close games and win most of them. We show nothing during the preseason, because it doesn’t f***ing matter!!

Worrying about the season based on the first preseason game is the definition of idiocy.

We now return to the regularly scheduled meltdown, already in progress…

it’s because they need to work with each other. It’s the first preseason game. They are trying to build a rapport together. So thats why he forced so many passes to Hester. That was planned. now calm down.

thats why they play preseason. This defense is in trouble, don’t get me wrong I love the Bears.

A. it was bound to be messy. Not everyone played and its a new team and system for the QB. so what.
B. The Bills had the advantage of playing full speed against the Titans before us to tweak what was wrong with their execution. We didnt and only lost by 7 who really is worse off? Dont jump the shark, preseason games are ugly anyway they arent supposed to be poetry in motion otherwise we could end up like the lions and blow our wad early. sorry if that was inappropriate.

the defense was not so cool.

I’m sure the majority of it can be tightened up and all… but Evans was working Vasher like a … metaphor i can’t connect right now.

Hopefully the rest of that can be fixed… but Vash looked awful.

Couple things that stand out to me is, OMG Johnny Knox is a speed Demon. He was one block and a cut back away from a touchdown.

I had my eyes on DJ Moore quite a bit. He was beaten on a couple plays sure, but he had good tackling after the receiver caught the ball.

Jay Cutler is going to be fine, man that dude has an arm on him. It was the first pre-season game after all.

The defense in general seemed to get a bit winded with the no huddle, they got to the QB a few times, some were just good plays of geting the ball out of the QB’s hands right before the sack.

Overall, i can’t say i liked everything i saw, i think it’s gonna come together though because i did see a lot of intensity on the defensive side of the ball, especially in the first half.

It’s pre-season, it’s just more organized practice.

Sounds like the “we expect Jay Cutler to perform flawlessly and be our savior” syndrome has taken hold… I was afraid this would happen.

Here are some reasons why I’m not too worried about the upcoming regular season

1. Jay is learning a new offense
2. They don’t play preseason games like regular season games. The play calling is almost uncharacteristic from the regular season (except the FB dive)
3. Not every offensive starter was playing (i.e. Matt Forte and Greg Olsen)
4. Not every defensive starter was playing (i.e. Zach Bowman, Peanut, Tommie Harris, Danieal Manning)
5. They were experimenting with Devin Hester
6. Jay was only in the game for the 1st quarter
7. First Game of the PRESEASON (how many days has it been since the bears played another NFL team in a REAL game)
8. The 2 picks that the Bills scored off of were both thrown within our 15, and thrown by Basanez… not Cutler
9. The defense stayed on the field waaaaaaayyyyyyyy too long because of Basanez, not Cutler

Sorry, couldn’t think of a tenth reason.

I may have misspoke when stating bowman was a starter, although he has definitely been playing like one during training camp. Husker pride baby!

I think we have to stop using the excuse “he was without Olsen and Forte” or the defense was “without Harris, Tillman, Manning, and Bowman”….THIS IS THE NFL. Players get hurt all the time and other players have to step up. Also, it’s not like Cutler and Olsen have been battery mates for years, they’ve never been in a game together. He should just be concentrating on the the system and see who’s open, not worrying what number they’re wearing (and I’m not saying he is, but that’s the common statement that been throughout this thread). Bowman has played exactly one Pro game in his career and Manning has still not been able to find a full time starting position on “D”, so it’s not like we’re saying Singletary and Hampton, in their prime, were missing.

Again, it’s one meaningless pre-season game and we shouldn’t overreact, but let’s understand that the good teams and coaches plug players in and have seamless transitions when starters go down. Look at the Patriots and teams like that. The chances of having “all your guys” go through an entire 16 game season are slim and none.

“I live among great Packer Fans who don’t complain about their team no matter the outcome. They just love the sport of football and their team. Although, it’s good
 to win!”

This is a statement from my wife. As a Bear Fan living in Packerland, I didn’t get
to see last night’s (Bear) game. What bothers me the most, are the preseason
comments made by the media and (many) fans. Cutler is being referred to
as “The Franchise”, the mighty man who brings home the Trophy. The enthusiasm
of his arrival at training camp was compared to “Beatle-mania” by Angelo
who orchestrated the expensive deal that brought Cutler to the Bears. This is
the same preseason hoopla that I heard of previous QB’s, including the likes of Grossman, Kramer, et, al. Some are even comparing Cutler to the Great
Sid Gilman. Some are even predicting that the Bears are “a lock” to be in the
Super Bowl this year. All because of the arrival of Cutler? What about Erlacher
and company…….don’t they count? I think that the arrival of Cutler gives us a
better chance to compete in the postseason. Giving Cutler all that power is a
bit dangerous, especially this time of the year. I remember too many disappointing
seasons in the past. What I’m looking forward to is not the Lombardi Trophy,
but all the fun that comes from watching an exciting TEAM play some good
football on their way to a winning season.

Some are even comparing Cutler to the Great
Sid Gilman Luckman.

First off, we were missing a few starters on both offense and defense. Cutler looked as if though he was trying to force the ball to Hester. The DB’s looked pretty weak except for Afalava, but, you have to take into consideration that we were missing Tillman, Manning, and Bowman. I liked how we didn’t give up big plays, except for the QB run and the longer pass over Vasher. We still have to improve the pass defense, as earlier said, DB’s didn’t do a good job. Almost seemed as if we were having the same problems as last year… O-Line was pretty impressve, D-Line could be better, but I did see some bright spots. I liked Hanie’s performance, but Basanez really got my blood boiling. He looked like an absolute cretin throwing the 2 int’s and spoiling Iglesias’s good kick return. Personally, he’s the one that blew the game for us, but the other player could have done a better job though. Let’s hope for a better effort at home against NYG, although it won’t be easier.

1.) The O-Line looked good. Cutler seemed to have time on every play (although I missed the first drive, thank you NFLN)

2.) Cutler…was weird. He was really going for Hester there. It almost seemed like they were trying to just make that connection rather than run the play as it should be. I dunno, I’m not worried because it’s the preseason, but that was weird.

3.) The D-Line was good but not great. Which, seeing as there was no Tommie Harris, is a good sign, right?

4.) The defensive backfield was playing off a lot of time, it seemed. I wonder if they’ll do that in the regular season.

5.)Finally…Melton on the kickoff return was AWESOME. Since I had to watch it on NFLN, I had the Buffalo announcers…they were completely flustered. They couldn’t figure out who he was, they thought maybe he was a 4th string fullback who had to take a linemen’s number because there weren’t any left. :) It was great. I wonder if Toub is trying new things because the wedge is out this year?

Yeah I was a little pissed off when I saw at 6pm that they were still broadcasting the falcons vs lions game. It’s the Lions… who cares, they went 0-16.

The Buffalo announcers were ridiculous as well, talking S%!^ on Cutler… Did they forget who they signed to a one year deal on their team? “Cutler just had his feelings hurt hahah”, Ummmm T.O. was jealous of Tony Romo and Jason Witten and thought they were conspiring against him by not throwing him the ball as much. Could they be any more hypocritical?! I’m convinced they put something in the water in Buffalo.

………………………sorry for the errors. I’ll have to cut down on my cheese.
What I really wanted to say is that I hope the
Bears get their act together before the season begins. The Packers looked
pretty solid last night and it will take a lot to beat them in Green Bay. Rogers
looked sharp and the defense looked pretty tough.
Hey……win or lose……GO BEARS!